Do not fear the blog

On Cafe Apocalypsis, Alan Bandy mentions an excellent response to Ivan Tribble article previously mentioned. It is in the Chronicle of Higher Education today:

Do Not Fear the Blog
By REBECCA A. GOETZ

. . . . I blog first and foremost because it is downright fun to participate in an emerging media form. Blogs and the blogosphere are new concepts, and the possibilities for scholarly communication are endless and exciting. Because I blog I now have contacts, online and offline, with a variety of scholars inside and outside my field. They don't particularly care that my dissertation is not yet done; the typical hierarchies of the ivory tower break down in the blogosphere so that even graduate students can be public intellectuals of a kind.

Professor Tribble lamented that blogs are not peer-reviewed and wrote that that was one reason why their content was illegitimate. While it is true that the author of a blog decides what she publishes on her blog, she does not blog in a vacuum. Other bloggers can -- and do! -- react to faulty logic or misinformation. . . . .

There's more good sense in every line of the article than there is in either Ivan Tribble's initial article, or his follow up They Shoot Messengers, Don't They? (2 September) put together.

SBL Blogging and Phil Harland

The forthcoming SBL CARG session on biblioblogging generated several recent posts from me and from others (See SBL Carg Biblioblog Session, Resources for SBL CARG biblioblog session and SBL CARG Biblioblog Session: Relevant Posts) and I've just spotted an extra resource that is relevant to the discussion that I would have mentioned before. It focuses on Phil Harland's excellent Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean Blog:

Academics take up blogging
Online diaries give professors a new audience
By James Allison, Editor, News@Concordia.ca:

. . . . Harland said adapting his writing for the blog has been a balancing act between maintaining a serious tone and providing light reading for a non-academic audience. However, it has proven beneficial in helping him to develop ideas and express them succinctly.

“When you’re reading a book and come up with idea, you don’t always take the time to jot it down,” he said. “The blog is useful for grabbing those ideas and developing them further.” . . . .

One of the remarks here is particularly relevant to one of the topics of our discussion:

This semester, students in Harland’s courses will also be given the opportunity to take part in this distributed conversation. He will post entries on his blog that deal with issues raised in class and encourage students to continue the discussion online . . . .

. . . . Allowing the public to observe and participate in classroom-related discussions in the context of a blog is an innovative way of enriching the educational experience.

And I would add that the great thing about the blog-as-classroom experiment is that we all get educated. I have personally found the recent entries on Religions of the Ancient Mediterraneans Blog on the Apocryphal NT very interesting and informative.

In related news, I noticed in a CARG email from Kirk Lowery that "The Blogging session received special highlighting by SBL; see p. 12 in the Program Book." I don't have a Program Book yet -- I guess it must have got lost somewhere between the US and the UK and back -- but it's good to hear that this session has been specially flagged.

Tyndale Bulletin latest

On BiblicalStudies.org.uk, Rob Bradshaw has the list of contents for the latest Tyndale Bulletin. I must admit that it is a journal I never consult, perhaps because of its weak on-line presence, perhaps because we didn't subscribe to it in Birmingham, perhaps just ignorance. However, I had a look on my Journals page and I was pleased to see that I do list its website:

Tyndale Bulletin

And all the abstracts are listed for the latest issue:

Volume 56.2 (November 2005)

(though note that it erroneously has May 2005 at the head). One of the articles looks especially interesting to me:

The Coming of the Son of Man in Mark's Gospel
Edward Adams, (King's College, London)

This article defends the view that Mark’s sayings on the coming of the Son of Man (Mark 8:38; 13:24-27; 14:62) refer to Jesus’ parousia, against claims made by R. T. France and N. T. Wright. According to France and Wright, these sayings call attention to the vision of Daniel 7:9-14, in which ‘one like a son of man’ comes into the presence of God for the purpose of enthronement, and point to Jesus’ post-mortem vindication, not his second coming. It is argued here that the Markan passages in question link Daniel 7:13 with other Old Testament texts and motifs, in particular, texts (such as Zechariah 14:3) and images about God’s future coming to earth; the selective combination of Scriptures and scriptural images and their application to Jesus generates the essential concept of his parousia – his coming as exalted Lord from heaven to earth at the end of history.

We do have it here at Duke, so I must make a strong mental note to go and dig this one out.

Idle Musings of a Bookseller

I'll join Joe Cathey in welcoming this new blog, now added to my blogroll:

Idle Musings of a Bookseller
Idle musings of what it is like to be an online bookseller in a niche market. Complete with ramblings about Biblical Studies, the ancient Near East, bicycling or anything else I am reading (or experiencing). Of course, opinions are mine and not my employer's.

The author is given as "jps" but Joe Cathey unmasks him as James Spinti of Eisenbrauns. A welcome addition to the blogosphere.

My SBL Paper

I have uploaded a first draft of my SBL paper:

The Rock on Rocky Ground: Matthew, Mark and Peter as Skandalon [PDF]

It's for the Matthew section, Sunday 20th at 1 p.m. It is all about the way that Matthew reads Mark, and the way that we read Matthew and Mark. I attempt to offer a little narrative-critical corrective to an overuse of redaction-criticism in Matthew's characterization of Peter. And I suggest that the key to understanding Matthew's characterization of Peter is to see that he is narrativizing the well-known claim in early Christianity that the crucified Christ was a skandalon to Jews (1 Cor. 1.23).

As always at this point, there is more work to be done on it before next week, but I wanted to get something up earlier rather than later to provide an opportunity for comments, which will be gratefully received.

Update (Tuesday, 17.45): second draft now uploaded, with some minor corrections and some additional bibliography. With some kind help, I managed to get most of my boxes of books opened yesterday and dug out a few things I'd wanted to re-read on the topic, with more of the same still to come.

Update (Thursday, 00.47): Third draft uploaded, with some additions and clarifications, and a little more bibliography.

Update (13 June 2006, 1.43): paper removed; it has been revised and submitted for publication.

Reduced Nativity Story

This morning's Sunday programme on Radio 4 announced a competition for Christmas to create a "Reduced Nativity Story":

Nativity Story competition
After the success of the Limerick competition in last year's Christmas programme, this year we're asking you to get your creative juices flowing by writing in with a "Reduced Nativity Story". Judged by Adam Long from the Reduced Shakespeare Company, we're asking listeners to write the Nativity Story in 30 seconds - for most of us that's about ninety words. There'll be a prize for the best one, and we'll read out the shortlisted ones throughout the programme.

The Americanization of Emily

Here's a new blog of particular interest to Brits in America:

The Americanization of Emily

The author is a certain Viola and the theme of the blog is "my take on relocating from the UK to the USA -- Pros and Cons, Dos and Don'ts, Loves and Hates". The title comes from the 1964 film starring Julie Andrews.

Did I mention that Viola is my wife?

Q sceptical Brits?

Over on one of my favourite blogs, The Busybody, Loren Rosson has an interesting post based on Akenson's Saint Saul:

Q: Sceptical Brits, Credulous Americans

Among other things, Loren asks:

Akenson's book was published only months before Mark Goodacre's Case Against Q -- the book which, on second reading, finally persuaded me to give up my belief in Q. I wonder what Mark thinks of Akenson's contrast between the continents, especially now that he's been transplanted to U.S. soil. Do the Brits have an edge on us here? Is it a coincidence that the three most formidable challenges to Q have come out of the U.K.? Do Americans, on the whole, need more skepticism and less credulity?

Thanks for reading my book, Loren. On this question, what I think is that all such broad-sweep characterizations are pretty useless. At best, the exceptions are so great that they render the generalizations invalid. Take the International Q Project, for example. Its strength is that it is just that -- international. Of course it is dominated by North America, but then so is everything else -- it's just that there are more American scholars out there. Or take the fact that Michael Goulder's Q scepticism has, on the whole, persuaded only a handful of Brits. Look at his peers, the great senior British NT scholars like Morna Hooker, Jimmy Dunn, Graham Stanton, Christopher Tuckett, David Catchpole, Howard Marshall, John Riches. Which of these has been persuaded by Goulder? Sadly, not a single one.

I don't think it's anything to do with great credulity or anything like that. If being on US soil has persuaded me of any generalization, it is that you can't generalize. Many of my own preconceptions about America and Americans, good and bad, have been overturned in the last two months. In any case, bear in mind that America too has produced Q sceptics, James Hardy Ropes, Morton Scott Enslin, Edward Hobbs, E. P. Sanders. I suppose that the interesting question for me is: why have these been just as unsuccessful in persuading people as the Brits mentioned? The answer is complex, and to some extent it is a thing I try to answer in the first chapter of The Case Against Q. Essentially, I think it comes down to strategy, palatability and plausibility. Farrer was no tactician (he did not think about strategy); Goulder has problems with palatability (the perceived unattractiveness of the associated claims); yet both had an essentially plausible thesis, which is why the seeds that they have sown are bearing fruit, perhaps not yet one hundredfold, but bearing fruit nonetheless.

Update (Sunday, 22.58): AKMA comments

Wasn’t it you, Mark, who proposed the Q skepticism in the U.S. tended toward the neo-Griesbach School (Farmer, Dungan, Longstaff, Peabody) whereas in the U.K. Q skepticism tended toward the Farrer-Goulder approach?

Certainly Q skepticism has a long, persistent tradition on these shores; it’s a little odd to hear that the Atlantic Isles might have an edge on us. . . .

Yes, I have certainly spent some time outlining the extent to which the dominant alternative to the Two-Source Theory in North America has been Griesbach (e.g. Case Against Q, Chapter 1). I suppose that I am being a little possessive about the term "Q scepticism" since I see Ropes, Farrer, Goulder, Franklin, Green, Drury et al as true "Q sceptics" in that they are strong Marcan Priorists, whereas the neo-Griesbach theory is sceptical not only about the existence of Q but also about Marcan Priority. I tend to think of the Griesbach theory as pivoting around their rejection of Marcan Priority rather than around their rejection of Q. The latter is something of a by-product, no? In the end, I don't suppose that that matters very much, but I hope that it goes some way to elucidating the language in my comments above.

Jesus: Stranger from heaven, Man from heaven or Son of Man?

Over on Euangelion, Michael Bird has an interesting post on a variant in John 3.13, "the Son of Man who is in heaven". I'd be interested to hear more about this from the experts. But it reminds me of a variant in the secondary literature that I found this week, and a story connected with the book there mentioned.

I have been lecturing on John this week, and on Friday we were looking at John's Christology. Naturally, I spent some time exploring Wayne Meeks's classic article, “The Man from heaven in Johannine Sectarianism”, JBL 91 (1972): 44-72, reprinted in John Ashton (ed.), The Interpretation of John (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1997): 169-206, which I regard as the desert-island-article of Johannine studies (i.e. if you only had one article that you could take, which would it be?). Anyway, I noticed Stephen Barton, "Can we identify the Gospel audiences?" in Richard Bauckham (ed.), The Gospels for All Christians: Rethinking the Gospel Audiences (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998): 173-94 refers to Meeks's classic article on 190 first by its correct title, and then twice under the incorrect title "The Son of Man in Johannine Sectarianism" (190, nn. 42-43).

Barton's variant reminds me of a story John Ashton used to tell about Wayne Meeks, viz. that he would refer to his own article, "Man from heaven . . . .", as "Stranger from heaven . . . .", apparently confusing the title of his piece with the title of Marinus de Jonge's 1977 book, Jesus: Stranger from Heaven and Son of God: Jesus Christ and the Christians in Johannine Perspective (SBLSBS, 11; Missoula: Scholars Press, 1977). I wonder if there is any truth in this?

Update (Sunday, 17.13): don't miss Ulrich Schmid's comments to this post.

Update (Monday, 09.14): Many thanks to David Mackinder in comments for the actual reference to Meeks's reference to his own article as "Stranger from heaven . . . ": "The simple answer is yes: have a look at p. 267 of the 1983 original edition of The First Urban Christians!"

Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films

Also on Codex Blogspot is a post on the Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films. It refers to a list on the Arts and Faith message board:

The 2005 Top 100 Arts and Faith Spiritually Significant Films

There are some interesting choices, not that I would want to compile even a top 10 under such a title. I am always surprised by just how much people seem to love Pasolini's Gospel According to Matthew, which comes in at 7 here. It's nice to see The Miracle Maker up there at 23, though. I was surprised to find out that none of my Intro New Testament class here had even heard of it.

Goliath's Cereal Bowl discovered

The prize for the most entertaining post on the recent important archaeological find goes to Tyler Williams on Codex Blogspot:

Giant Pickle's Goliath's Cereal Bowl Discovered

And there are some useful links to sources of information on the find, including the relevant blog posts.

SBL CARG Biblioblog Session: Relevant Posts

Further to my previous two posts (Resources for the SBL CARG Biblioblog Session and SBL CARG Biblioblog Session), I would like to draw attention to some relevant blog posts. Please let me know of useful ones I've missed.

What Should We Talk About? (on Ralph)

. . . . One thing I hope we don't talk about is the term "biblioblogger." There the term is, and we're stuck with it. And I hope we don't discuss "what is a biblioblogger," or the forgery scandal, or minimalism, or the historical Jesus, or what our desks look like, or which character from the Simpsons we are, or such worthy-but-irrelevant topics.

What Would Jesus Blog? (on NT Gateway)

This short post generated a series of interesting replies, including:

"God-Blog" or "Biblioblog". What's The Distinction? (on Biblical Theology)

. . . . To put it another way, in terms of magazines: "God blogs" are the "People" magazine of religion and religious studies while "biblioblogs" are the "Expository Times". The people interested in "People" are very likely, if they are of a religious bent, to read the "God-blogs" while the readers of Expository Times (Or JBL or CBQ or ZAW) would more likely be interested in biblioblogs. (By the way, as to which biblioblog is akin to which learned Journal I will leave to the readers decision).

CARG Biblioblogging Session @ SBL (on Sansblogue)

. . . . What's the use of blogging to a biblical scholar? or Why bother? Because if we can't answer that one we might as well all stay home, and carry on blogging...

(Would we then be "blogging a dead horse"?)

Mark Goodacre on the "God-blogging" phenomenon and academic blogs [I think this post may have been removed; it was on Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean blog]

This latter post was followed up by Tim Bulkeley on Sansblogue, Who is a biblioblogger?. See too:

jesus and biblioblogging, history and theology (from The Stuff of Earth).

See also on Deinde:

Who reads biblioblogs?

. . . . I do wonder if the 'ideal' of academics connecting with the public is actually being played out (this is a genuine question, not a rhetorical one). For instance, has Paleojudaica or any of the other biblioblogs been 'cited for clarification' in the media? Or has any of the bibliobloggers actually done a poll of its readers?

Update (23.29): On Bible Software Review Weblog, Rubén Gómez comments on Rick Brannan's paper.

Resources for SBL CARG biblioblog session

In my previous post, I began brainstorming about the session on biblioblogs scheduled for the SBL's CARG next week. Here are some of the resources that might help to guide and stimulate further thought:

The Blogosphere as a Carnival of Ideas
By HENRY FARRELL
From: The Chronicle of Higher Education 7 October 2005

. . . . Others, perhaps the majority, see blogging as an extension of their academic personas. Their blogs allow them not only to express personal views but also to debate ideas, swap views about their disciplines, and connect to a wider public. For these academics, blogging isn't a hobby; it's an integral part of their scholarly identity. They may very well be the wave of the future.

This is a useful article, which I first saw mentioned on Paleojudaica. It touches on many of the issues already mentioned, and asks how blogging fits into the academic's career, workload, output and public perception.

Bloggers Need Not Apply
By IVAN TRIBBLE

We've seen the hapless job seekers who destroy the good thing they've got going on paper by being so irritating in person that we can't wait to put them back on a plane. Our blogger applicants came off reasonably well at the initial interview, but once we hung up the phone and called up their blogs, we got to know "the real them" -- better than we wanted, enough to conclude we didn't want to know more.

This is also from the Chronicle of Higher Education, from 8 July 2005, and is a distinctly discouraging view of the potential problems with young academics blogging. I first spotted this on Ralph the Sacred River and Ed has a bunch of interesting links and comments at the bottom of the post.

Assimilated to the Blogosphere: Blogging Ancient Judaism
James R. Davila

This article appeared on the SBL Forum (April 2005) [Repeated note: the SBL Forum still does not have a browsable archive of past editions -- this really needs fixing]. It's an excellent series of reflections on Jim's experiences of writing Paleojudaica.

Biblioblog Problems and Solutions: PastoralEpistles.com as a Sandbox
Rick Brannan

This paper is written for the forthcoming session.

Do others have useful suggestions? In my next post, I would like to gather some individual blog posts on the topic that are worth reading again.

SBL CARG Biblioblog Session

Now that sounds incomprensible to the outsider, doesn't it? It stands for Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting Computer Assisted Research Section [Group], which has a session on Sunday 21st November on biblioblog, which might loosely be defined as a blog that focuses on the academic study of the Bible and related topics.

Here are the programme details:
--
Computer Assisted Research
11/20/2005
9:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Room: Room 411 & 412 - Marriott

Theme: The Pleasures, Pains and Prospects for Biblioblogging

The phenomenon of "blogging", the maintenance of a regular online journal or weblog, has proliferated massively in recent times. As in all areas of life, political, religious, cultural, art, entertainment and media, so too in the area of academic Biblical Studies, the blog is an informative, innovative, up-to-the-minute way of discovering more about the subject, discussing the latest developments, interacting on controversial topics and enjoying the lighter side of the discipline. These "biblioblogs" are now widely consulted by those in the guild, and are contributing something of interest and intelligence. But what is the future of the biblioblogs? What is their scope for development? This session gathers together a panel of pioneers in this area.

Mark Goodacre, University of Birmingham, Presiding

James Davila, University of St. Andrews, Scotland
Enter the BiblioBloggers (20 min)

R.W. Brannan, Logos Bible Software
PastoralEpistles.com: Biblioblog? Annotated bibliography? Or Something in Between?(20 min)

Panel Discussion (80 min):

A.K.M. Adam, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Panelist
Tim Bulkeley, University of Aukland, Panelist
Stephen Carlson, Fairfax, VA, Panelist
Edward Cook, Cincinnati, OH, Panelist
Torrey Seland, Volda University College, Panelist
James West, Quartz Hill School of Theology, Panelist
---

The panel discussion is the thing I'd like to spend a little time brainstorming. First off, we will of course discuss issues arising directly from Rick's and Jim's papers. Rick's is already available to read here:

Biblioblog Problems and Solutions: PastoralEpistles.com as a Sandbox

and Jim's is forthcoming. But what else? Some brainstorming suggestions:

1. What is a biblioblog and are we bibliobloggers?
The term "biblioblog" originated in a comment made by David Meadows on RogueClassicism and it was gradually, and not without reluctance in some parts, adopted by those Meadows was describing. But what is a biblioblog? Is it a useful term? I am interested here in the variety represented on the panel, not least to get some of AKMA's Random Thoughts, since he has been blogging far longer than anyone else on the panel, but relatively rarely on Biblical Studies related topics. I am also interested to get some of Jim Davila's thoughts, since I regard him as the pioneer in this area. Paleojudaica was unquestionably the direct catalyst for my beginning blogging.

2. Who does it?
I am interested in the mix among the authors of the biblioblogs, from academics (what Americans call "professors"), to graduate students, to pastors, to gifted and enthusiastic independent scholars. Each group is very well represented, and it may account for the success of the biblioblogs, in particular the way that they interact with each other so well.

3. Why do we do it?
Self indulgence? Big-headedness? Altruism? Desire to communicate our scholarship to a wider public? Writing practice? Trying out ideas?

4. What do we think we are doing?
What justifications do we give for blogging?

5. What is our readership, actual and ideal?
I am sure that we all get some kind of feel for our readership through the comments we receive on blog entries, through emails and so on.

6. "Does your wife read your blog?"
As I once asked on a blog entry. In other words, we need to deal with the gender issue: why so few female bloggers. And this might also be the heading to deal with the question of what we blog about. How much personal detail is desirable / acceptable? This is one I often grapple with. In general, I have resisted personal posts, yet found that when I opened my travel diary on coming to North Carolina, I had more comments and enthusiastic responses than ever.

7. Networking and Interaction
How far do we see ourselves as a network, with our own distinctive emphases and interests, but with overlap and complimentarity?

8. How many more biblioblogs?
Just how far can we expand? At what point do we fragment and specialize to the extent that it becomes quite impossible to read everyone's biblioblog? Are we already at that point now? What if everyone blogged?!

9. What about team blogging?
Team blogs are on the rise. Is this the future for biblioblogging? What advantages do the team blogs have over the solitary blog?

Well, they are some of my thoughts about what we could talk about. In my next post, I'd like to pool some useful resources for discussion.

Update (17.08): Jim West comments on Biblical Theology, suggesting a tenth:

10. Can, and should, blogging become a teaching tool alongside classwork, coursework, and supplemental website work?

I must admit to having toyed with the idea of team-blogging as an element in student assignment for a given course, but have never experimented with it. I know others have. I wonder with what results?

(Jim's little extra refers to one of my non-highlights of the week, failing my North Carolina road test. When I told a colleague here, he told me that it didn't make me a bad person. And I would like to point out that I performed brilliantly on the written test. Mind you, it's not that difficult.)

Update (20.21): Joe Weaks comments on the Macintosh Biblioblog.

Update (Sunday, 16.38): Jim West has more on Biblical Theology:

11- Can We As Bibliobloggers contribute to the education of the wider public concerning archaeological discoveries and biblical studies by counteracting the misinformation often found in the Press.

What I mean by this of course is the fact that the news reports concerning "The Birth of Jesus" for instance (a la the dreadful DaVinci nonsense) and the finding of "proof of Goliath" for another offer bibliobloggers the opportunity to debunk the misstatements of the press. It seems to be a pressing need and one that many are simply overlooking.

Update (Sunday, 16.42): Michael Pahl comments in The Stuff of Earth. It's all worth reading, in particular:

How many more biblioblogs? I think there's always room for more blogs, and there are always more readers entering the world of the internet and the blogosphere. I do think, however, that an increase in blogging among academics, especially well-established scholars, would inevitably result in increased specialization and a blogging hierarchy, which would then result in a more well-defined readership among the various blogs. Even now, when I want to access the latest high-quality info and opinion on biblical studies matters, there are only a few blogs I'll go to. I read other blogs because they provide stimulating ideas, or clever commentary, or interesting "personality," or whatever.

Update (Sunday, 19.41): Tim Bulkeley comments on Sansblogue.

Pre SBL Buzz

It is a week to go before the Society of Biblical Literature's Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, and at this time of year there is an enjoyable "buzz" around the biblioblogs, e-lists and internet generally as people make their plans, frantically write their papers, and try to find a spare slot for that meeting with a publisher / friend / colleague / former colleague, etc. I have found myself staring at my diary several times over the last couple of days and wondering how to fit everything in, and whether I'll be able to get to any papers just because I want to be there, rather than because I am responsible in some way.

But one thing seems different to me this year. This may be just because I was so out of the loop with my housing and financial woes that I was not able to concentrate properly, so I'd be interested to hear whether this is other people's perception too. Normally at about this time, the internet is awash with contributors' papers. I have often made the flight with a armful of print-outs of papers, but don't anticipate doing the same this year. Rick Brannan has his available for our session on blogging, on which more anon. In Thoughts on Antiquity, Chris Weimer mentions the Seminar Papers, which you can find on the SBL site here:

SBL Seminar Papers

It's the first time I've checked this up -- must have missed it before now, but I am struck that there are only seven papers available, and five of those are from the Matthew section, which suggests some coordination on their part. I may be misremembering, but this looks like a lot less than last year, the first year of internet-only seminar papers. And it is less still than when the fat book used to come out.

Anyway, I am speaking this year in the Matthew section and I am just putting the finishing touches to my paper and hope to upload here soon.

SBL Blogging brainstorm

The NT Gateway server was down yesterday evening, and I had a bunch of things I wanted to blog on too. O well, it gave me the chance to write 43 emails instead, and the backlog is now a little reduced. One of the things I'd like to do is a little brainstorming ahead of next week's SBL CARG (that's Computer Assisted Research Section [Group]) session all about blogging. So I'll be back on-line with my thoughts in a moment, or, as they say here in the US, "momentarily".

Reporting the Birth of Jesus on MSNBC

This article is about a feature on American TV tonight:

The daunting task of reporting on the birth of Jesus
Keith Morrison, Dateline Correspondent

That said, the questions are simply irresistible. Where was Jesus born, Bethlehem or Nazareth? Were there "wise men?" How many? Were they kings? Did Herod slaughter the boy-children of Bethlehem? Did the Holy Family flee to Egypt, as Matthew reports? Legions of scholars have done their best to sort it out. We spoke on camera to six: John Dominic Crossan, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, DePaul University and a prolific author of books about the historical Jesus; Ben Witherington, author and Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary; Craig Evans, Professor of New Testament, Acadia Divinity College; Scott Hahn, Professor of Scripture, Franciscan University; A.J. Levine, Jewish scholar and teacher of the New Testament at Vanderbilt University, and Lesley Hazleton, author of a "flesh and blood" biography of Mary. Their views are instructive, fascinating and frequently conflicting. One of the most difficult parts of our assignment was the need to leave out so much of their compelling commentary.

Here's the programme's blurb:

In a special edition of 'Dateline NBC,' Keith Morrison asks, "What if everything you thought you knew wasn’t the whole story?" In an attempt to answer this profound question, Morrison takes viewers on a remarkable journey -- back in time -- to unravel the mystery. "The Birth of Jesus" hour airs Dateline Friday, 8 p.m./7 C.

The latter is a standard feature of advertising of TV programmes in the US -- the are on at "8/7 central", meaning 8 pm Eastern Time, 7 pm Central.

Graphic Novel Based on Mark's Gospel

This was on Religion Press Releases today:

The Angel is a Clown: First Graphic Novel Based on a Gospel Captures Vivid Power of Mark

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
contact: Rebecca Wilson, 330-524-2067, rswilson@raex.com

November 10, 2005 -- NEW YORK--The devil rides in a stretch limousine, Moses bears a striking resemblance to Frederick Douglass, and the angel left at the tomb is a clown. And that's just the start of the unusual cast of characters in Marked, the first graphic novel based on a Gospel.

Marked, created by New York artist and Episcopalian Steve Ross, is true to both the graphic novel form and the Gospel. The story is full of action, danger and subversive characters with wild ideas: just like a comic book--and just like the biblical stories of Jesus' life. "We might want to label Marked up front the way we should label the New Testament itself: Let the reader beware," says the Rev. William McD. Tully, rector of St. Bartholomew's Church in New York City.

Why turn biblical imagery upside down? "For centuries, we've seen the long-haired white middle-class guys who have co-opted Christianity. That was my beef," says Ross. "Those images of Jesus and his followers were created by really talented artists during the Dutch Renaissance, and after hundreds of years our culture is still bound by these images' tyranny." That's why this Jesus, who starts out holding a circular saw and sporting long hair and beard, is bald and clean-shaven by page 17.

To the uninitiated--and perhaps to the uptight--Marked may appear blasphemous. Ross's art was inspired by Nikos Kazantzakis' controversial novel The Last Temptation of Christ, and the format of graphic novels encourages sophisticated play with the sort of shocking images and complex themes that have made Art Spiegleman's Maus both a prize-winner and a classic. "I fear that two thousand years of 20/20 hindsight have sucked the surprise, awe and sheer weirdness out of the Gospels," says Ross, and Marked works hard to restore those qualities to the familiar story.

But Ross is a man of deep faith and abiding love for the Gospel story: "I just wanted to see if I could receive the Gospel of Mark with a lover's heart and then recount it with a troublemaker's eye," he says. "Like Picasso stripping away layer after layer of preconceptions until he finally arrived at a new way of seeing."

Steve Ross, whose illustrations have appeared in numerous magazines and publications around the world, lives in New York with his wife and their two children. He is a member of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church.

Marked
Steve Ross
175 pages 7" x 10 1/2"
Available December 2005 from Seabury Books
1-59627-002-0 Softcover $20.00
publicity contact: Rebecca Wilson, rswilson@raex.com, 330-524-2067
Art and excerpts for media use available at www.markedgraphicnovel.com.

###

Seabury Books
an imprint of
Church Publishing Incorporated * 445 Fifth Avenue * New York NY 10016
www.seaburybooks.org * 1-800-242-1918
-----
You can see selections from the book at this website:

Marked

I suppose that for academic types, it is especially refreshing to see a graphic novel that bases itself on a particular Gospel, rather than on a harmony. And it is even more welcome to see Mark the focus, since this is so rarely the case in art. I wonder what's happened to the Visual Bible's Gospel of Mark film, by the way? I haven't heard anything for a long time now.

Update (17.25): Amazon have it for $13.60.

3rd Century Church at Megiddo

This has been big news in the blogs, and elsewhere, and my being behind on everything has not given me the chance to mention it here, but thanks to John Marshall for pointing out this Washington Post article on what was at first being called "oldest Christian church", but which is now being more accurately and responsibly reported. This article seems to get the vote as the most useful and balanced yet, and I mention it for those who haven't so far seen it:

Site May Be 3rd-Century Place of Christian Worship
Discovery Made At Israeli Prison
By Scott Wilson

If this is your first encounter with the story, you should definitely read the article above -- and keep a look out for more on this.

Evangelical Textual Criticism

I'm very behind on reading everything that has accumulated on my blogroll in recent weeks, but I've made one addition that is especially welcome:

Evangelical Textual Criticism
This is a forum for people with knowledge of the Bible in its original languages to discuss its manuscripts and textual history from the perspective of historic evangelical theology

I think I first spotted mention of it on Stephen Carlson's Hypotyposeis, Jim West's Biblical Theology and Michael Bird's Euangelion.

The new blog is welcome not only because it claims some top scholars in its team (e.g. Peter Head and Pete Williams, but also because it is a team blog, and on such an interesting and important topic.

I hope that the name of the new blog won't put people off. Not me. Some of my best friends are text critics. And some of my best friends are evangelicals. Goodness, come to think of it, I can think of friends who are both evangelicals and text critics! Well, two or three.

Jonathan Klawans

One of the (many) pleasures of being at Duke is that there is a regular New Testament and Early Judaism colloquium, sometimes with guest speakers (this semester John Barclay, before I arrived) and sometimes with the home team (this semester Joel Marcus, a couple of weeks ago, a fascinating paper on idolatry in the NT). Tonight was the third and last of the semester. After the delivered pizza, it was a paper by Jonathan Klawans on the temple incident. Although I didn't find myself sympathetic to the thesis of the paper, it was a brilliant and most enjoyable presentation, not least because of its scope -- a rethinking of the way sacrifice works in ancient and early Judaism and with a lot of useful reflections on contemporary scholarship on sacrifice. I am ashamed to say that I was not familiar with Klawans's work until tonight, but he is clearly well worth spending time with. Here's his faculty page at Boston University:

Jonathan Klawans

I am afraid that it is nothing like as strong as his colleague Paula Fredriksen's web page, with its multiple full-text reproductions of articles, but it provides a useful sketch.

Klawans has a new book out which I looked at tonight and which I will be looking to buy next week in Philadelphia. This is the OUP link:

Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple
Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism

Swimming in a sea of emails

A week or two ago, I was drowning in emails. Now I am swimming again, I think. Well, perhaps treading water at least. I am really sorry to all those I owe emails. I hope replies will be on the way soon. I am very behind with absolutely everything, but have this naively optimistic hope that life will be restored to some kind of normality soon, and that before leaving for Philadelphia on Friday, I will be on top of everything. It's good to dream.

Old Texts for a New Day

I received this flyer today; it is from Hollins University, and I've added a link at the beginning below to their website (but for the flyer, click on the main link below):

Hollins University:

Monday, November 28, 2005
Green Drawing Room, Main Building

Old Texts for a New Day: Setting the New Testament Writings in the Today’s World (PDF)

4:30 pm The Importance of Pauline Theology for the Church Today
Anne Katherine Greib, Hollins class of 1971, Associate Professor of New Testament at Virginia Theological (Episcopal) Seminary

7:30 pm 'Let No One Despise Your Youth': Tendencies and Countercurrents in the Pastoral Epistles
Sandra Hack Polaski, Assistant Professor of New Testament, Baptist Theological Seminary of Richmond
Reception to follow 7:30 pm lecture

Review of Biblical Literature Latest

Latest from the SBL Review of Biblical Literature under the NT heading:

Finlan, Stephen
The Background and Content of Paul's Cultic Atonement Metaphors
Reviewed by Susan Haber

Frost, Samuel M.
Exegetical Essays on the Resurrection of the Dead
Reviewed by Michael Licona

Garrow, Alan J. P.
The Gospel of Matthew's Dependence on the Didache
Reviewed by Michael Bird

Gaventa, Beverly Roberts
Acts
Reviewed by Craig Keener

Incigneri, Brian J.
The Gospel to the Romans: The Setting and Rhetoric of Mark's Gospel
Reviewed by Michael Bird

Rossing, Barbara R.
The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation
Reviewed by Pieter De Villiers

Malherbe Festschrift

Tom Olbricht mentioned the following on Rhetoric-L:
--
Early Christianity and Classical Culture: Comparative Studies in Honor of Abraham J. Malherbe, eds. John T. Fitzgerald, Thomas H. Olbricht, L. Michael White (Atlanta: SBL, 2005), 740 pp.

PART I: Graphos

Dieter Zeller, "The theia physis of Hippocrates and other "Divine Men""

Harold W. Attridge, "Making Scents of Paul: The Background and Sense of 2 Cor 2:14-17"

Gerard Mussies, "In Those Days:" Some Remarks on the Use of "Days" in Matthew 2:13:1, and Luke 2:1"

David E. Aune, "Distinct Lexical Meanings of aparche in Hellenism, Judaism, and Early Christianity"

Hans-Josef Klauck, "Compilation of Letters in Cicero's Correspondence"

Duane F. Watson, "A Reexamination of the Epistolary Analysis Underpinning the Composite Nature of Philippians"

PART II: Ethos

Ronald F. Hock, "The Parable of the Foolish Rich Man (Luke 12:16-20) and the Graeco-Roman Conventions of Thought and Behavior"

Troels Engberg-Pedersen, "Radical Altruism in Philippians 2:4"

Luke Timothy Johnson, "Transformation of the Mind and Moral Discernment in Paul"

James W. Thompson, "Creation, Shame, Nature: in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16: The Background and Coherence of Paul’s Argument"

Cilliers Breytenbach, "Civic Concord and Cosmic Harmony: Sources of Metaphoric Mapping in 1 Clement 20.3"

PART III: Logos

Edgar Krentz, "Logos or Sophia: The Pauline Use of the Ancient Dispute between Rhetoric and Philosophy"

Bruce W. Winter, "The Toppling of Favorinus and Paul by the Corinthians"

L. Michael White, "’Rhetoric and Reality in Galatians: Framing the Social Demands of Friendship"

Stanley K. Stowers, "Apostrophe, Prosopopoiiua, and Paul's Rhetorical Education"

Thomas H. Olbricht, "Analogy and Allegory in Classical Rhetoric"

Everett Ferguson, "The Art of Praise: Philo and Philodemus on Music"

PART IV: Ethnos

Carl R. Holladay, "Paul and His Predecessors in the Diaspora: Some reflections on Ethnic Identity in the Fragmentary Hellenistic Jewish Authors"

Leander E. Keck, "The Jewish Paul among the Gentiles: Two Portrayals"

David L. Balch, "The Cultural Origin of "Receiving all Nations" in Luke-Acts: Alexander the Great or Roman Imperial Policy?"

Edwin A. Judge, "Did the Churches Compete with Cult Groups?"

Hanne Sigismund Nielsen, in "Men, Women, and Marital Chastity: Public Preaching and Popular Piety at Rome"

PART V: Nomos

Johan C. Thom, "’The Mind is its Own Place’": Defining the Topos"

J. Louis Martyn, "Nomos Plus Genitive Noun in Paul: The History of God's Law"

Benjamin J. Fiore, "Household Rules at Ephesus: Good News, Bad News, No News"

Marinus de Jonge and L. Michael White, "The Washing of Adam in the Acherusian Lake (Greek Life of Adam andEve 37:3) in the Context of Early Christian Notions of Afterlife"

John T. Fitzgerald, "Last Wills and Testaments in Graeco-Roman Perspective--

Alice Cooper as King Herod

I was enjoying listening to Simon Mayo on FiveLive on Friday afternoon (well, it comes on in the morning here -- still haven't got used to that) and during an interview with Alice Cooper, someone emailed to compliment him on his portrayal of Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar. Cooper said that Tim Rice himself had approached him about doing it and he did a little imitation of himself saying "Walk across my swimming pool". I wasn't familiar with this, so googled and found that it was on a 1996 London Cast recording (or 1997 highlights recording), which I have now of course ordered from Amazon, who even have a short clip available. I am looking forward to listening; it is the version with Steve Balsamo as Jesus.

Another great King Herod is, of course, Rik Mayall in the recent Jesus Christ Superstar (2001), which has Glenn Carter as Jesus.

Chicken Little

Question: what does Chicken Little have in common with The Passion of the Christ?

Update (Sunday, 23.13): Jim West gets the prize for the most entertaining answer in Biblical Theology; I also liked anonymous commenter's "The title character announces the coming of the end, suffers mockery and condemnation, and ends up saving the world through his actions?", which was in fact better than the real answer, correctly guessed by David, that the music for each was composed by John Debney. Like all the most serious film-goers, I'm a credit watcher. One of the big puzzles to an English viewer about this film, though, is why all the other characters retain their repetitive surnames, Foxy Loxy, Goosey Lucy, etc., but there is a failure of the imagination on Chicken Little, who in the UK is Chicken Licken.

Meanwhile, Crystal asks what The Passion of the Christ has in common with The Matrix Reloaded. Monica Bellucci?

Early Christians' Reactions to Slavery

Another interesting press release from Fortress (I've asked other publishers to send me these, but to no avail, so Fortress continues to get the free publicity that others don't):
--
Early Christians’ Reaction to the Practice of Slavery

MINNEAPOLIS (November 4, 2005)— How did early Christians think about slaves? J. Albert Harrill argues in his new book, Slaves in the New Testament, that they did so using conventional stereotypes familiar from ancient moral philosophy, handbook literature, and the comic stage.

In this significant new analysis of slaves and slavery in the New Testament, Harrill breaks new ground with his extensive use of Greco-Roman evidence, explicit attention to hermeneutics, and treatment of the use of the New Testament in antebellum U.S. slavery debates. He examines in detail Philemon, I Corinthians, Romans, Luke-Acts, and the household codes.

While scholars have often treated references to slaves in the New Testament as evidence of the “liberating” participation of enslaved people in early Christianity, Harrill shows that many of the figures appearing in the New Testament are literary representations drawing on ancient ideologies that supported slavery. This finding then leads to an investigation of the ideological use of the New Testament to justify, and use to condemn, slavery in the United States.

This study as a whole offers a hermeneutical challenge to the noble dream that biblical criticism can settle Christian moral debate.

"Harrill combines wide-ranging knowledge of ancient sources with a sharp eye for the jugular of a text. The result is that rare thing in biblical scholarship, genuinely fresh insights into an old question. A book both delightful and disturbing, Slaves in the New Testament demolishes a card house of wishful thinking about early Christian views on slavery. Everyone who believes that the Bible has something to say about moral issues needs to pay attention."
— Wayne A. Meeks, Woolsey Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies Department of Religious Studies, Yale University

"Far more than a historical study of slavery in early Christianity, Harrill's remarkable book raises profound moral questions for the field of Biblical Studies and for the Christian churches. Nineteenth-century debates over whether the Bible supports slavery forged the schools of thought that shape today's debates over lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered rights; the full emancipation of women; or capital punishment. Harrill deftly analyzes a range of New Testament and other Christian sources, demonstrating how frequently they echo Roman society's slave-holding values and anxieties about living with people forcibly held in bondage."
— Bernadette Brooten, Robert and Myra Kraft and Jacob Hiatt Professor of Christian Studies, Brandeis University

J. Albert Harrill is Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Adjunct Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies, and Director of the Ancient Studies Program at Indiana University. He is author of The Manumission of Slaves in Early Christianity (Mohr [Siebeck], 1995).

Slaves in the New Testament: Literary, Social, and Moral Dimensions

Format: Hardcover with jacket, 6” x 9”, 360 pp

ISBN: 0-8006-3772-0

Price: $45.00



Format: Paperback, 6” x 9”, 360 pp

ISBN: 0-8006-3781-X

Price: $25.00

Publisher: Fortress Press

To order Slaves in the New Testament please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at www.fortresspress.com. To request review copies or exam copies, or to discuss speaking engagements or interviews, please call 1-800-426-0115 ext. 234 or email toddb@augsburgfortress.org.
--

First full study of women's roles in the early church

This press release is from Fortress:

--
“This is the fruit of mature and careful social historians who now do for the study of Christian women what Beryl Rawson and Richard Saller have done for the Roman family—a patient, multidisciplinary, literary, political, and archaeological investigation. . . . The most thorough and far-reaching study to date. . . . No one wanting to engage the lives and roles of early Christian women or their central place in the expansion of Christianity in the first three centuries can afford to miss this book.”

—Harry O. Maier, Professor of New Testament Studies, Vancouver School of Theology

Fortress Press Releases the First Full Study of Women’s Roles in the Early Church

MINNEAPOLIS (October 19, 2005)— A Woman’s Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity by Carolyn Osiek, Margaret Y. MacDonald, with Janet H. Tulloch gives a focused look at women in the household context discusses the importance of issues of space and visibility in shaping the lives of early Christian women. Several aspects of women's everyday existence are investigated, including the lives of wives, widows, women with children, female slaves, women as patrons, household leaders, and teachers. In addition, several key themes emerge: hospitality, dining practices, and the extent of female segregation.

“A wonderful collection of evidence for the participation of women in early Christian house churches, as patrons, leaders, presiders, and funerary banquet hosts. . . . Essential reading for scholars of the New Testament and antiquity alike.”

—Kathleen E. Corley, Professor of New Testament and Christianity and Oshkosh Northwestern Distinguished Professor, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh

“A perceptive and illuminating study of early Christian women in the domestic setting of house churches . . . set in the broader cultural context of the Mediterranean in the first couple of centuries of Christianity.”

—Beryl Rawson, Professor Emerita, Classics, Australian National University

"Uses the all too meager evidence with sophistication and presents their results with engaging clarity."

— Harold W. Attridge, Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament and Dean, Yale Divinity School

Carolyn Osiek is Professor of New Testament at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas. Her other books include, with Kevin Madigan, Ordained Women in the Early Church: A Documentary History (2005); Shepherd of Hermas (Hermeneia, Fortress Press, 1999); and, with David L. Balch, Families in the New Testament World: Households and House Churches (1997).

Margaret Y. MacDonald is Professor of New Testament at St. Francis Xavier University (Nova Scotia, Canada). Her previous books include Early Christian Women and Pagan Opinion (1996) and The Pauline Churches: A Socio-Historical Study of Institutionalization (1988).

Janet Tulloch, who contributes the chapter on women and funerary banquets, received her Ph.D. in the New Testament from the University of Ottawa.

Format: Hardcover, 6” x 9”, 320 pp

ISBN: 0800636902

Price: $35.00

Format: Paperback, 6” x 9”, 320 pp

ISBN: 0800637771

Price: $35.00

Publisher: Fortress Press

To order A Woman’s Place please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at www.fortresspress.com. To request review copies or exam copies, or to discuss speaking engagements or interviews, please call 1-800-426-0115 ext. 234 or email toddb@augsburgfortress.org
--

Rhetoric, Ethic, and Moral Persuasion in Biblical Discourse

This was just announced on Rhetoric-L by Tom Olbricht:

--
Rhetoric, Ethic, and Moral Persuasion in Biblical Discourse, eds. Thomas H. Olbricht and Anders Eriksson (New York: T & T Clark International, 2005) xiv + 401 pp.

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, "Disciplinary Matters: Biblical Studies as A Critical Rhetoric of Inquiry."

Rodney K. Duke, Applachian State University, Boone, NC, "The Ethical Appeal of Chronicles"

Anders Eriksson, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, "The old is good: Parables of patched garment and wineskins as elaboration of a chreia in Luke 5:33-39 about feasting with Jesus."

Manfred Kraus, Unitersität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany "Ethos as a Technical Means of Persuasion in Ancient Rhetorical Theory"

John W. Marshall, University of Toronto, "When You Make the Inside like the Outside: Pseudepigraphy and Ethos"

J. David Hester-Amador, Center for Rhetoric and Hermeneutics, Santa Rosa, California, "The Wuellerian Sublime: Rhetorics, Ethics, Power, and the Ethics of Commun(icat)ion"

Prof. Carol Poster, York University, Toronto, CA, "Ethos, Authority and the New Testament Canon"

Thomas H. Olbricht, Pepperdine University, Emeritus, South Berwick, ME, "The Foundations of Ethos in Paul and in the Classical Rhetoricians"

Roy Jeal, William and Catherine Booth College, Winnipeg, Canada, "Melody, Imagery and Memory in the Moral Persuasion of Paul"

Fred Long, Bethel College, Mishawaka, IN, "From Epicheiremes to Exhortation: A Pauline Method for Moral Persuasion in I Thesalonianst"

Mark D. Given, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, "On His Majesty’s Secret Service: The Undercover Ethos of Paul, God’s Double Agent"

Todd Penner, Austin College, Sherman, TX, and Prof. Caroline Vander Stichele, University of Amsterdam, "Unveiling Paul: Gendering Ethos in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16"

Russell B. Sisson, Union College, Barboursville, KY, "Athorial Ethos in Philippians: The Agon Topos in Paul and Hellenistic Moralists"

Troy Martin, Saint Xavier University, Chicago, IL, "Veiled Exhortation Regarding the Veil: Ethos as the controlling Moral Persuasion (1 Cor. 11:2-16)"

Johan S. Vos, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, "Phil 1:12-26 and the Rhetoric of Success"

Rollin Ramsaran, Emmanuel School of Religion, Johnson City, TN, "In the Steps of the Moralists: Paul’s Rhetorical Argumentation in Philippians 4"

Jerry L. Sumney, Lexington Theological Seminary, Lexington, KY, "The Function of Ethos in Colossians 1:24-2:5"

Walter Übelacker, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, "Hebrews and the Implied Author’s Rhetorical Ethos"

Vernon K. Robbins, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, "From Heidelberg to Heidelberg: Rhetorical Interpretation of the Bible at the Seven ‘Pepperdine’ Conferences from 1992 to 2002"
--
I particularly like the title of Mark Given's article. I always say that one should ahve a few article titles on your CV that make one sit up and take notice!

In the Footsteps of Jesus

Coming soon on BBC Radio 4:

In the Footsteps of Jesus

Edward Stourton embarks on a journey in the footsteps of Jesus, bringing to life the world in which He lived.

There has never been a greater public demand for information about Jesus, the real man. Mel Gibson's The Passion and Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code have both tapped into this desire to learn more about the man who is at the centre of the world's largest religion.

For one third of the world’s population, Jesus is the son of God, while a quarter views Him as a prophet and many others revere Him as a great teacher. But in this series Edward will also trace how the idea of Jesus and our understanding of Him has changed through the centuries; from Jesus, to Christ, to Emperor and finally to Guru.

It is a four part series, beginning Monday 21 November, and continuing weekly until the week before Christmas. For those of us outside the UK, don't worry! You can listen to it on-line. (In fact if you are anything like me, you are already listening to Radio 4 on-line whenever possible).

I should add that I have been involved in the series, as script consultant. I am very happy with the way that it has shaped up. I talked to Ed Stourton not long before leaving the UK; and they also got some top notch people, including Tom Wright, Ed Sanders, Bart Ehrman and Larry Hurtado. I promise some regular reminders when the programme airs.

Review of Biblical Literature latest

A little later than usual, but here it is anyway, the latest from the SBL Review of Biblical Literature under the NT heading:

Brown, Michael Joseph
The Lord's Prayer through North African Eyes: A Window into Early Christianity
Reviewed by Gerald West

Meier, John P.
Translated by Jean-Bernard Degorce, Charles Ehlinger, and Noël Lucas
Un Certain Juif: Jésus-Les Données de l'histoire: II: La parole et les gestes
Reviewed by Thomas Kraus

Tsang, Sam
From Slaves to Sons: A New Rhetoric Analysis on Paul's Slave Metaphors in His Letter to the Galatians
Reviewed by Roy Lucas

Van Neste, Ray
Cohesion and Structure in the Pastoral Epistles
Reviewed by Christopher Hutson

O'Keefe, John J. and R. R. Reno
Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible
Reviewed by Tobias Nicklas

O'Keefe, John J. and R. R. Reno
Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible
Reviewed by Marcus Sigismund

Segal, Alan F.
Life after Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion
Reviewed by Corrado Martone

Thought for the day

I am really enjoying reading Dale Allison, Resurrecting Jesus, in the few spare moments I have at the moment, and rather liked this comment which he makes in passing:

"One cannot fairly criticize an idea by ridiculing its distortions" (222).

I can think of occasions when I could have used that line to good effect, and I am going to remember it for the future.

Thanks and another attempt to return

One of my favourite parts of one of my favourite films, The Truman Show, is where they take the show off the air and they get the best ratings ever. I feel a bit like that with the blog! My blogging hiatus has generated so many sympathetic comments and emails that I wonder whether I should do it more often (only joking). The long and short of it is that we after an initial honeymoon period for the first few weeks when we arrived in North Carolina, subsequently we have found the transition from the UK to the US very difficult, and unexpectedly so in many areas. I am not able to go into detail, at least not at this point, but what I would like to do is to say thanks for the support and encouragement, which means alot.

And I am going to say darn everything and I will blog!

Blogging to resume soon!

The drought is almost over! After the longest gap in the history of the NT Gateway blog, I am all set to resume blogging later today. I may tell the story of why I've not blogged for so long, but then again I may not. It has been a difficult couple of weeks. Thanks for all your emails and sorry for not having answered them. More later, I hope.

Update (Sunday, 20.37): Sorry, it never did happen, after all. As it turned out, I had less time than I had hoped and couldn't find the window I thought I had. And even less energy. But at some point I am still hoping for a resumption.

What would Jesus blog?

Religion News Blog has this story from the Associated Press on What would Jesus blog?. You might say that the bibliobloggers would be in the perfect position to answer the question, knowing what they know (or perhaps more accurately what they don't know) about the historical Jesus alongside their blogging experience. But it's not biblioblogging that is the topic of the article but a "God blog" conference in California. Since we have a session coming up soon on biblioblogging, at the SBL Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, and we need to start thinking about this soon (cf. Ed Cook on Ralph), here's a question. What is the relationship between biblioblogging and God- (or god-) blogging? My blog is not really a theological blog, and my own academic interests are more historical than theological. Many other bibliobloggers have the same bent, Paleojudaica, Hypotyposeis and Philo of Alexandria, to take three obvious examples. But there are others who are much more interested in blogging on theological issues. Is Ben Witherington or Jesus Creed a biblioblog? Should we all do what AKMA's Random Thoughts or Dave Black online do and blog on anything of interest to us? More questions and thoughts later.

Scholars to Spend Time With

On The Busybody, Loren Rosson has an enjoyable list of Scholars to spend time with, the ten scholars he would enjoy getting to know better. He has some quirky and enjoyable choices. I am lucky enough to have spent extended amounts of time with four on the list, and in each case I have greatly valued that time spent; in a couple of cases it has been life changing. Who would I add, I wonder? One would definitely be Austin Farrer. I suppose that another would be Bultmann, but I don't think my German would be up to lengthy and profound conversations with the great man. I would love to spend time too with R. H. Lightfoot, I think. My mother met and spent time with Joachim Jeremias and said that he was delightful; I would enjoy that too. And I'd enjoy talking to B. H. Streeter; I'd like to see if I could better understand why he found Luke's use of Matthew so difficult to envisage.

What's New in Abzu?

This is something that I had missed until now so mention it in case others have missed it too. I spotted it at the top of Jim West's Biblical Theology blogroll. I don't normally notice people's blogrolls because I access blogs through bloglines (and Jim's has gone pink and purple since the last time I visited the page!):

What's New in Abzu
A chronological listing of newly added or edited entries in Abzu, a guide to the rapidly increasing, and widely distributed data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East via the Internet.

N. T. Wright Page latest

The latest addition to the N. T. Wright Page is the following review from a decade ago in Reviews in Religion in Theology:

Two Radical Jews
A review article of Daniel Boyarin, A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity, Reviews in Religion and Theology 1995/3 (August): 15–23

Things to come in bloggerdom

On Euaggelion Michael Bird tells us what he'd like to see in 2006 in Biblioblogdom. It's a curious thing, but one of the things he'd like to see is one of the very things I have planned, 'Mark Goodacre to blog on “Kloppenborg is right! 10 reasons why I believe in Q”.' I thought I'd blog on that on 4/1/2006 (for English readers, note that this is not 4 January; I'm learning to speak American, you see).

Nino Ricci's Testament

Over on Xtalk Zeba Crook recommends a new-is novel by Nino Ricci called Testament. It sounds interesting and, according to Zeb, it is impressive for its historical knowledge of the first century. Here is Ricci's official website:

Testament

And there is plenty of information (Search Inside, etc.) on Amazon, as well as very cheap used copies:

Testament: A Novel

I am looking forward to reading it.

Is there a theological brain drain?

I couldn't help smiling to see my name in a letter in the Church Times. It's not often that that happens:

Is there a theological brain drain?
By Canon Nicholas Henshall

Sir, — Your recent extract, concerning the Revd Sarah Coakley, from Rupert Shortt’s book God’s Advocates (Features, 9 September) illuminated an accelerating trend in the UK. We are losing our most able theologians to America.

I am no academic, but just looking around people I know on the move at the moment, I see Dr Sam Wells, one of the finest young moral theologians, and Dr Mark Goodacre, one of the leading English New Testament scholars, both off to Duke University.

It is not that the whole missionary enterprise depends on theologians. But unless challenging and deep theology is taught and experienced, a Church seeking to preach the gospel in a post-Christendom world will simply end up mouthing easy platitudes. (After all, there is quite a lot of evidence of this already.)

If British universities can no longer afford to teach theology, the Church of England’s preference for placing theological colleges near universities cannot solve the educational issues of the next few decades.

Training theologians and then creating the exciting and challenging contexts in which they can do their most creative work may seem like an impossible dream in the current intellectual climate in this country. The question is whether we have a future as a missionary Church without such investment.
NICHOLAS HENSHALL
Derby Cathedral Centre
18/19 Iron Gate
Derby DE1 2GP

I am a couple of weeks behind, because this appeared -- I think -- at the end of September. I used to look at the Church Times whenever I could, but as with many things British, like tea, black pudding and cricket, I am on a limited diet here.

Review of Biblical Literature Latest and TRENT

Latest from the SBL's Review of Biblical Literature under the NT heading:

Cameron, Ron and Merrill P. Miller, eds.
Redescribing Christian Origins
Reviewed by James Dunn

McKnight, Edgar V. and Christopher Church
Hebrews-James
Reviewed by David Bauer

Rapa, Robert K.
The Meaning of the Works of the Law in Galatians and Romans
Reviewed by Guy Waters

Tomson, Peter J.
Translated by Janet Dyk
Presumed Guilty: How the Jews Were Blamed for the Death of Jesus
Reviewed by Matthew Montonini

Tomson, Peter J.
Translated by Janet Dyk
Presumed Guilty: How the Jews Were Blamed for the Death of Jesus
Reviewed by Jeremy Punt

Instone-Brewer, David
Traditions of the Rabbis from the Era of the New Testament: Volume 1: Prayer and Agriculture
Reviewed by Casey Toews

It's interesting to see a review of the latter just after it had surfaced on the Xtalk list as a topic of interest. I noted there what is also well worth mentioning here, that David Instone-Brewer's TRENT Project has a massive web site of its own, just as you'd expect from Biblica-Studies-on-the-net guru Instone-Brewer:

Traditions of the Rabbis from the Era of the New Testament (T-R-E-N-T)

Junia -- the First Woman Apostle

This press release from Fortress Press:

-----
“For those Christians whose concern about women in leadership roles is tied to the question whether women actually served as leaders during the church’s earliest generation, this book is an eye-opener.”

—Beverly Roberts Gaventa, from the foreword

Epp Sheds Light on Women’s Leadership Through Text of Romans

MINNEAPOLIS (October 10, 2005)— The name "Junia" appears in Romans 16:7, and Paul identifies her (along with Andronicus) as "prominent among the apostles." In his new book, Junia—The First Woman Apostle, Eldon Jay Epp investigates the mysterious disappearance of Junia from the traditions of the church.

Because later theologians and scribes could not believe (or wanted to suppress) that Paul had numbered a woman among the earliest churches' apostles, Junia's name was changed in Romans to a masculine form.

Despite the fact that the earliest churches met in homes and that other women were clearly leaders in the churches (e.g., Prisca and Lydia), calling Junia an apostle seemed too much for the tradition. Epp tracks how this happened in New Testament manuscripts, scribal traditions, and translations of the Bible. In this thoroughgoing study, Epp restores Junia to her rightful place.

“Completely persuasive and definitive, Junia rectifies the slighting of women by many exegetes. A real contribution.”

—Walter Wink, Auburn Theological Seminary, New York

“Not only is Epp’s fundamental thesis about textual criticism and exegesis meticulously documented and persuasively argued; his examination of the particular case of Romans 16:7 pulls together, sorts out, nails down, and illuminates the issues, assorted evidence, and often confusing arguments that have come to the fore in the last few decades. Thanks to this excellent book, I can affirm with renewed confidence both Junia’s distinguished place among the apostles and her freedom to speak in the church!”

—Victor Paul Furnish, Southern Methodist University, Dallas

“If anyone could say the ‘last word’ on a matter of New Testament interpretation, Epp certainly has, Junia covers all bases, including the history of interpretation, lexicography, grammatical analysis, and text criticism.”

—Edgar Krentz, Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago

Eldon Jay Epp is Harkenss Professor of Biblical Literature emeritus and Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences emeritus at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio), recently Visiting Professor of New Testament at Harvard Divinity School (2002-2003 and 2004-2005), and President of the Society of Biblical Literature (2003).

Junia—The First Woman Apostle

By Eldon Jay Epp

ISBN: 0-8006-3771-2
Format: Paper, 128 pp

Price: $16.00
Publisher: Fortress Press

To order Junia—The First Woman Apostle please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the web site at www.fortresspress.com. For review copies, or to discuss interviews with the author or speaking engagements contact Bob Todd at 612-330-3234 or e-mail toddb@augsburgfortress.org.

Pauline Chronology

On Novum Testamentum, Brandon Wason has a very useful chart on Pauline Chronology:

A Chronology of the Apostle Paul

Make sure you go to the blog site itself rather than just reading the feed in your aggregator, because the formatting works properly on the site. Brandon reveals that he was responsible for the Blue Letter Bible Timeline, which comes up top on a google search for Chronology Paul. I rather like Brandon's approach in his revised Chronology, except that I would myself push Galatians a little later -- I think it has to have been written after 1 Corinthians but before 2 Corinthians. Brandon's chart rightly avoids the mistake criticized by John Knox and others of getting Paul to Jerusalem straight after his conversion (Acts 9); Galatians 1 makes it clear that this did not happen. But Brandon does not mention the Acts 11 Jerusalem visit, which I think explains the Acts 9 visit because it is identical with it. It is a typical example of a Lucan flash-forward, in which a later event is narrated earlier in the sequence for strategic reasons, just as Luke narrates Jesus' Rejection at Nazareth out of (Marcan) sequence (Mark 6) in Luke 4.

I have a similar chart I give out to my undergraduates on Pauline Chronology (MS Word format, sorry):

Chronology of Paul's Life

Found that on the Birmingham server; looks like I didn't remove everything before I left. That's quite useful since I'm only steadily transferring older materials onto my new Duke-provided blogging machine (a nice IBM ThinkPad).

Greek Number Converter

Worth a mention is this from Russell Cottrell:

Greek Number Converter

(Seen on About Ancient / Classical History).

NT Job, Alliance University College, Alberta

Dave Black online mentions a New Testament post that has been advertised in Alberta, Canada:

New Testament Faculty: Alliance University College

Wrightsaid Latest

From time to time, Tom Wright answers specially selected questions from the Wrightsaid email list and the responses are published on the N. T. Wright Page. The latest of these has recently been posted:

Bishop Tom Wright Responds to Wrightsaid Questions (October 2005)

Henry Ian Cusick spotted on Lost

One of the great things about being in the USA (among many others, e.g. great coffee, jerky, smoothies, root beer, free refills, popcorn with butter on it at the cinema) is that you can catch all the new TV shows as they come out rather than having to wait several months to emerge on Sky or E4. As regular readers know, I only blog on matters of urgent interest to New Testament scholarship, so I will note that the second season of Lost, the third episode of which premiered last night on ABC, featured Henry Ian Cusick as Desmond, most famous for playing Jesus in the Visual Bible's Gospel of John. He has appeared in the first three episodes. He is something of a baddie and seems to have a Scottish accent (or was it Irish?).

Meanwhile, another Jesus, Victor Garber (from Godspell) is still frowning away as Sydney (Jennifer Garner)'s father in Alias, also on ABC and now in its umpteenth season. Interesting how these shows aren't just of marginal, almost cult interest here, as they are in the UK, but are on prime-time telly.

The Extent of Christian Theological Diversity: The Pauline Evidence

While I was sitting for the second time this week in the social security administration in Durham, NC, waiting for a couple of hours to pick up my social security number, I read an excellent article by Jeff Peterson of Austin Graduate School, Austin, Texas. It is from a recent volume of the Restoration Quarterly. I emailed Jeff to ask if I might post the article on-line. He replies today with the good news that it is already available:

"The Extent of Christian Theological Diversity: Pauline Evidence", Restoration Quarterly 47 (2005): 1-12 [PDF]

It's well worth reading. I notice too that Jeff has available a reproduction of his recent article in the collection I co-edited entitled Questioning Q:

"Order in the Double Tradition and the Existence of Q" in Mark Goodacre and Nick Perrin (eds.), Questioning Q (London: SPCK, 2004)

New Testament Position at Holy Cross

This was just on Ioudaios, posted by Rochelle Altman, but it might be worth mentioning for those who don't subscribe:

COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS, Department of Religious Studies, announces a tenure-track position, beginning in fall 2006, rank open, in New Testament. Holy Cross is a Catholic, Jesuit liberal arts college. Secondary specialization desirable to complement the specialties of the present faculty. Possible secondary fields include but are not limited to early church history, early Christian theology, Eastern Christian theology, women in early Christianity, critical theory, hermeneutics, and ethics. Teaching includes five undergraduate courses each academic year, one of which is a seminar. The College is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer and complies with all Federal and Massachusetts laws concerning Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action in the workplace. Please send letter of application, vita, and dossier, including three letters of recommendation, to Professor Frederick J. Murphy, Chair of the Search Committee, Department of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA 01610, by November 1, 2005. Preliminary interview of selected applicants will be held at the annual meeting of the AAR/SBL in Philadelphia, November 19-22, 2005. EOE/AA. URL: http://www.holycross.edu/departments/religiousstudies/website/index.html.

MarkNanos.com

The latest NT scholar to get his own dot com is Mark Nanos:

Mark D. Nanos

His website has moved there, though the old URL is still working too. I've made the adjustment on the Scholars: N page.

F. F. Bruce Texts

Rob Bradshaw continues his fine work on Biblicalstudies.org.uk with the announcement of full text reproductions of two texts by F. F. Bruce:

F. F. Bruce, The Hittites and the Old Testament Tyndale Old Testament Lecture, 1947. London: The Tyndale Press, 1947. Pbk. pp.28.

F. F. Bruce, The Teacher of Righteousness in the Qumran Texts London: The Tyndale Press, 1957. Pbk. pp.36.

Bird's Top 25 NT Scholars

Like others, I have enjoyed Michael Bird's Top 25 NT Scholars and of course the fun of it is to be impressed, outraged and amused, not necessarily in equal measure. The real problem, I suppose, is doing the list across 20 centuries. I can't even begin to think about how Origen compares with C. K. Barrett, or how Luther can Calvin compare with Bultmann and Käsemann. So I will only comment on the moderns. I suppose I'd want to see Bultmann and Sanders a bit higher; I think the list is a bit evangelical heavy -- Wright too high, Howard Marshall and F. F. Bruce I'd delete. I think I like the idea of Bauckham making it, but I'd push down a few places. Of Michael's honorable mentions, I'd promote one to my 25 -- Gerd Theissen. There are some absentees who don't even make it to Michael's honourable mentions, and who would make my list, viz.:

• John Dominic Crossan
• W. D. Davies
• Helmut Koester
• Michael Goulder
• Wayne Meeks
• Nils Alstrup Dahl
• Krister Stendahl
• Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
• Dale Allison
• Christopher Rowland
• Bruce Metzger
• Bart Ehrman

All of those have in some way broken new ground and have stimulated the imagination in such important ways that they deserve a place on the list above those very fine scholars Michael does mention, but who have not quite changed the landscape.

Update (Sunday, 23.16): Doug Chaplin comments on Metacatholic. He also wants to see Theissen and Meeks there.

Birmingham v. Sheffield

On Deinde Paul Nikkel comments on The "Sheffield School" of Blogging. He asks "does the University of Sheffield have the largest biblical blogging community?" I think Birmingham past and present can compete:

NT Gateway Weblog, Mark Goodacre
The Stuff of Earth, Michael Pahl
KAIMOI, Ken Olson
Metacatholic, Doug Chaplin
2 Kings 9.20 Blog, Michael Strickland

Come to think of it, this is me and my students (past and present). Now, if we could get anonymous female commenter to start a blog too, we'd have it over Sheffield.